My husband is a full time school admin for a local school district. On the side he teaches a course or 2 a year for a local college. On the common app the choices are that a parent 1. is employed by a college. 2 retired from a college or 3. has never worked at a college. If we put that he is employed by a college it cancels out his regular job on the application form and makes it appear that his full time job is at the university. This is not correct. He is not retired from anywhere and saying that he has never been employed by a college doesn’t seem correct either. What do others in this situation do/what seems to be the best choice?
I would just go with choice 1. What your jobs are is perhaps not as relevant as the question whether one of you is or was employed by a college. Although it would seem to me that “employed” could mean anything from President of the College, to maintenance staff, so I don’t know why it would be particularly meaningful anyways.
I’d also go with #1. Seems more important that they know husband is employed by the college even if also employed elsewhere. If you can find a space to clarify, you could include adjunct faculty status and other FT job.
Dissenting from the previous replies: An adjunct gig is a sideline (well, it should be, like it is for your husband; too often it isn’t). Therefore, yes, it’s employment, but it isn’t employment in the sense they’re after—I mean, I’m a college professor, but I have done a couple contract-work editing gigs over the years. But if someone were to ask me if I was ever employed as an editor? Nah, saying yes to that would be implying I have work experience that I don’t.
So—and particularly since answering otherwise cancels out his real job—I’d vote for choosing “has never worked for a college”.
(It’s a poor set of options, though, and not just for cases like his. What about people who worked for a college in the past and didn’t retire from there, but simply left academia and are doing something else now? If you can find an option to give feedback, it could be worth offering some.)
Blockquote
Dissenting from the previous replies: An adjunct gig is a sideline (well, it should be, like it is for your husband; too often it isn’t). Therefore, yes, it’s employment, but it isn’t employment in the sense they’re after—I mean, I’m a college professor, but I have done a couple contract-work editing gigs over the years. But if someone were to ask me if I was ever employed as an editor? Nah, saying yes to that would be implying I have work experience that I don’t.
So—and particularly since answering otherwise cancels out his real job—I’d vote for choosing “has never worked for a college”.
Blockquote
I’ve adjuncted for the 33 semesters of the past 24 years. Yes it was “part-time” work, and intentionally so. Sorry if that wasn’t a REAL job. I’ll remember to mention that the next time someone asks what I do and say “Oh, nothing really. I’ve never worked for a college”. Sheesh, how insulting.
Since the option is “employed by a college”, all positions of employment are covered. It does not ask if parent is faculty, staff, full time, part time. If parent is getting a paycheck from a college for work done there, he is “employed by a college”.
2 Likes
OP has said that if he lists “employed by a college” referring to his part-time job, then this information replaces his main job. I would stick with what ever makes the main job information accurate.
Please chill. For the OP’s husband, the adjunct position was not his real job.
That phrasing is kind of important. Nowhere did I say that adjuncting is not a real job. However, it isn’t his real job.
Perhaps primary/main/full-time would have been s better descriptor. Regardless, let’s all move on.